This empirical study explores metacognition and its relationship with writing performance. Through multivariate analyses, the study investigates the role of metacognitive knowledge and regulation in mediating writing performance. Participants were 882 students from eight universities in China who were learning English as a foreign language (EFL).…

Existing studies on L2 motivation have established a significant association between ideal self, learning engagement, and academic achievement, but few have examined the internal relationships between these variables in the L2 writing domain. In addition, students' linguistic competence, a fundamental element of writing achievement, remains…

This study examines the relationship between developing writer's vocabulary breadth, vocabulary depth, and writing abilities. Participants were EFL Chinese junior-high students, of whom there were 120 Grade 8 and 147 Grade 9 students. Measures included tests of vocabulary size, word association, and morphological awareness. Students' writing…

The reactivity of think-alouds (TAs) (i.e., their effects on thinking) has remained an inevitable concern whenever their use is considered or evaluated. This paper reports findings from a study that involved 85 Chinese sophomores, who, having received some instruction in diction, and then written a narrative in English as a baseline task,…

Due to the lack of life experience and situational experience, it is difficult to arouse pupils' inner motivation and interest in writing. Therefore, the early stage of Chinese writing may be a challenge for Chinese pupils. In order to solve this problem, a spherical video-based virtual reality (SVVR) experience learning system was developed to…

In this article, a cognitive framework for observing learning activities based on human-computer coupling is proposed. The observation is based on the vectorization of a learning situation along with human-computer interaction factors. An evolutionary high-dimensional topology of learning cognitive flow is introduced for human-computer…

The study uses a pre-test, post-test experimental randomised control group design to examine the effects of a blended learning environment on Chinese adult learners' English acquisition. At the initial stage the study constructed a blended learning environment composed of three parts: task-based online learning, group-based peer learning and…

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of online assessment training, with synchronous group discussion as a key component, on subsequent web-based peer assessment results. Participants included 81 college students, mostly women, taking a business writing class. After initial submission of a draft counter-offer letter, they completed…

In the second language acquisition domain, researchers have devoted tremendous efforts to studying the relationship between L2 learning and some socio-affective factors, such as anxiety, motivation, etc. However, little research has been done to examine whether and how perfectionism, a psychological trait, affects L2 learning and L2 performance.…

Enhancing writing pedagogy in university-based courses for students of English as a foreign language has been a long-term goal of educators and researchers. Most recent work, however, has relied on qualitative methodologies that limit our capacity to generalize findings. In this quantitative study, the authors adopted a quasi-experimental control…

This study was designed to validate a multidimensional structure of writing self-efficacy in English as a foreign language contexts, conceptualized in self-regulated learning theory and social cognitive theory. The Second Language Writer Self-Efficacy Scale was developed and evaluated through a series of rigorous validation procedures. The…

This research synthesis collected, compiled, and analyzed 29 academic research articles that were published in China in recent years. It addressed and explored the issues in Chinese undergraduate students' English writing and the possible reasons causing and/or explaining the issues. It was discovered that many Chinese undergraduate students have…

This study investigated the effect of cooperative learning on writing anxiety alleviation through a pre-test/post-test assessment. 120 EFL learners from a Chinese polytechnic institute were assigned into two groups: one experimental (cooperative writing) and the other comparison (solitary writing). Results revealed that cooperative learning…

The purpose of this study was to design and examine a computer-supported knowledge-building environment and to investigate both collective knowledge-building dynamics and individual learning in the context of a tertiary education course in mainland China. The participants were 102 students in four intact Year-one tertiary business classes. Two…

The aim of this study was threefold: (1) to further examine the possibility of using literature-based activities to raise EFL students' emotional intelligence (hereafter EI) and (2) to see whether there is any relationship between students' EI and writing achievement, in addition (3) to shed light on the implementation of such activities into the…